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The law is for YOUR protection. Honest!

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worstje:
Patent laws should have a sanity clause that allows anyone to challenge a patent on the grounds that it is patently bonkers.
-Carol Haynes (June 28, 2011, 05:39 AM)
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You gave me an idea just now - let's request a patent on filing trivial or otherwise cumbersome patents. There's got to be a limit to the amount of fancy wording that one can come up with to describe a trivial single-sentence action.

In other news, I saw this article come by earlier today: Dutch government: Hollywood approves our copyright plans (Dutch, sorry.)

Basically, we get the MPAA head honcho to do some PR on how awesome this new law is and how it should serve as an example for all of Europe. It includes all the standard anti-piracy stuff and goes a few steps further, basically putting our privacy as a second thought to their ability to identify, prosecute and make more money.

Newsflash, dutch government: the MPAA is American, not dutch nor European even, but American! However, you have been elected by the Dutch, and are expected to do what is in the citizens best interest. But nooo, this state secretary is just setting himself up for a good job in the private sector once his term is over on accounts of having done the American movie industry a couple of favors.

I just hope it is only a single state-persons views this article covers, but either way, it is sickening and disturbing with no end in sight. >:(

40hz:
@worstje - There may be some faint hope. Looks like some government officials are waking up to what the proposed ACTA treaty represents - and behaving responsibly in the face of it:


 
Did Mexico Pull Out Of ACTA For Real? For Now, Yes, But Maybe Not For Long


After discussing the recent move by the Mexican Congress to sign off on a statement urging the country's President not to sign ACTA, we asked Geraldine Juarez, who has been following the situation closely in Mexico to weigh in with more details on what's happening there on this issue.

Last Tuesday, the Second Standing Commission of the Mexican Congress approved unanimously a resolution, promoted by Senator Francisco Castellon, to exhort the Executive to not sign ACTA. The resolution was tabled and then voted on Wednesday by Congress (this voting included Congressmen and Senators). The text of the resolution is explicit about this request:

ÚNICO.- La Comisión Permanente del H. Congreso de la Unión, exhorta respetuosamente al titular del Poder Ejecutivo Federal para que, en el marco de sus atribuciones, instruya a las Secretarías y Dependencias involucradas en las negociaciones del Acuerdo Comercial Anti Falsificación (ACTA), a no firmar dicho Acuerdo. Dado en el salón dos de comisiones del Senado de la República.

Translation
UNIQUE.- The Standing Committee of the H. Congress, respectfully urges the Federal Executive Power so that, within the framework of its powers, instruct the ministries and agencies involved in negotiating the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), not to sign the Treaty.


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Full article here.

rjbull:
Patent laws should have a sanity clause that allows anyone to challenge a patent on the grounds that it is patently bonkers.-Carol Haynes (June 28, 2011, 05:39 AM)
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I think UK patents are already supposed to be for practical, workable devices.  Perpetual motion machines are definitely banned.

There should also be a 'public good' clause that says no patent can be granted where it will infringe on public welfare - and that should include all bio-patents which to me are the very worst of all the patent stupidity foisted on the world by a barmy US system!
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Then you have to define "public welfare."  After all, a patent is disclosing somebody's idea, putting that knowledge in the public domain, and eventually (typically 17-20 years) reaching a state where it can be used by anyone without payment.  That in itself might be considered for the public good.

rjbull:
You gave me an idea just now - let's request a patent on filing trivial or otherwise cumbersome patents. There's got to be a limit to the amount of fancy wording that one can come up with to describe a trivial single-sentence action.-worstje (June 29, 2011, 02:15 PM)
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There's a patent assigned to IBM that runs into three volumes...  don't know how they got that many words or ideas into it.  Often, though, in the ink formulation patents I saw most of, a lot of the space is given over to example formulations.

Renegade:
I posted this in another thread, but it seems relevant here:

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